The present invention relates to a hearing aid device and more particularly to the kind of device that includes a microphone that is located in the user's auditory canal so that the concha portion of the user's ear acts as a sound collector therefor.
The use of miniature hearing aids has been known heretofore, one such hearing aid being disclosed in the U.S. patent to HUTH, U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,127. The HUTH hearing aid includes a microphone that is inserted into a cavity as formed in an ear plug molded from a plastic material. The microphone is electrically interconnected to an amplifier that amplifies the sounds as received by the microphone and transmits the amplified sound to a speaker. Connected to the speaker and also extending into the ear plug is a sound tube that transfers the amplified sound from the speaker to the auditory canal of the user. In the HUTH hearing aid, the electrical wiring that joins the microphone and amplifier extends through the sound tube for concealment therein.
Although the hearing aid as disclosed in the patent to HUTH, U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,127, satisfied the purpose of concealing the wiring from the microphone to the amplifier and was sufficiently miniaturized to essentially conceal the hearing aid in the ear of the user, the microphone was not located in the auditory canal of the user's ear, wherein the concha portion of the ear could not function as an efficient sound collector. The location of the wiring in the sound tube that extended from the microphone to the amplifier in the HUTH device also interfered with sound transmission and adversely affected the quality of sound as transmitted to the auditory canal of the ear of the user.